Thursday marks the third day of engineers and water officials assessing damage and a possible solution for the continued erosion at the Oroville Dam Spillway, but a constant onslaught of rain isn't helping the situation at the lake or the spillway.

The hole, which was initially believed to be 180 feet wide by 250 feet long by 45 feet deep, has gotten significantly bigger since it was first noticed Tuesday morning, in part because of the increase in outflow from the lake, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

Inflows into the lake are more than 118,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). Compare that to about 35,000 cfs that is being let out of Lake Oroville, DWR officials said. In addition, 13,000 cfs was being let out of the Hyatt Power Plant.

The release of water through the spillway will likely continue to cause more damage at the eroded hole, which is about two-thirds down the spillway chute. Crews have set up booms and other devices to catch debris that might flow down into the Feather River.

Engineers and DWR officials are monitoring the spillway 24 hours a day by way or cameras, drones and other technology, as well as people who are out at the chute throughout the day and night, DWR spokesperson Eric See said.

The spillway has a maximum capacity of 250,000 cfs, but the most that has ever flowed down the chute was about 150,000 cfs in 1997.

As of noon Thursday, Lake Oroville stood at 90 percent of capacity -- 6.5 percent higher than it was Wednesday afternoon -- as water is still being dumped into the reservoir, while a significantly less amount is being let out.

As the lake continues to rise, officials are preparing for the possibility of using the ungated emergency spillway just to the north of the normal one, which would release water into uncontrolled land in the valley and the Feather River.

The emergency spillway can be used only once the lake gets to 100 percent capacity or 901 feet in elevation. The reservoir holds 3.5 million acre-feet, but as of noon Thuesday,

Thursday marks the third day of engineers and water officials assessing damage and a possible solution for the continued erosion at the Oroville Dam Spillway, but a constant onslaught of rain isn't helping the situation at the lake or the spillway.